The Benefits of Having House Guests

The girls are very blessed to have Aunty Annie stay with us this week.

Annie is our friend from PLCMC back home and a regular house guest. Whenever she visits Melbourne, she stays at our place.

She is the best kind of house guest: blends in effortlessly, is completely herself, always knows the right thing to say to each person, knows when to be chatty and when you want to be alone, keeps herself occupied but always has time to play with the girls or to chat about things that are of interest to everyone.

As a sister in Christ, she shares insights picked up from her reading and life experience, challenges us to trust and obey, and warns of pitfalls (doing her Ezekiel "Watchman" duties).

I love how she draws the best out of the girls. Yesterday, she resolved a sibling quarrel over toys by asking Mei Mei what was in her heart and did she know that God could look into her heart and see what she was thinking?

According to Annie, Mei Mei evidently took the lesson to heart, because she looked very abashed and uncomfortable, and stopped bugging her sister to let her have the coveted toy.

Thanks to Annie, I have a willing helper and babysitter and my day goes more smoothly. The girls actually look forward to seeing Aunty Annie when they come home from school. They love hanging out with her because she lets them play with Talking Tom and brain training games on her iPhone. J brought home a drawing she'd done at daycare, and said it was for "my Aunty Annie". And Beth didn't need to be prompted to say hello when we picked her up after school. She actually SMILED when she said "Hello Aunty Annie". (Beth doesn't do smiles, except when she's with her friends.)

Now THAT is what you call Personal Power.